tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20077444.post815601982228283269..comments2024-03-26T04:21:43.535-05:00Comments on Free Association: More on BarnettSheldon Richmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15672237234580563637noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20077444.post-23811714369110630022007-07-23T21:36:00.000-05:002007-07-23T21:36:00.000-05:00What especially irks me is that Barnett runs a web...What especially irks me is that Barnett runs a website dedicated to individualist anarchist Lysander Spooner. I think Spooner had a few things to say about the War Between the States.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20077444.post-44059880860222051822007-07-20T11:47:00.000-05:002007-07-20T11:47:00.000-05:00"It is urgent that we not let Barnett's position b..."It is urgent that we not let Barnett's position be taken as "the libertarian" position."<BR/><BR/>The nail on the head.<BR/><BR/>This is all about co-opting the word "libertarian," just as the word "liberal" was corrupted by FDR worshipers.<BR/><BR/>Whomever controls the language, controls the debate.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20077444.post-29674946597164292002007-07-19T20:17:00.000-05:002007-07-19T20:17:00.000-05:00I appreciate all the comments. It is urgent that w...I appreciate all the comments. It is urgent that we not let Barnett's position be taken as "the libertarian" position.<BR/><BR/>His article can be demolished even without getting into libertarianism. If you are concerned about jihad, why would you invade a secular, westernized Arab country that was a barrier to both al Qaeda and Iran? Makes no sense unless you want a pretext for a long-term imperial presence in the region.Sheldon Richmanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15672237234580563637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20077444.post-81406875497376173962007-07-19T15:50:00.000-05:002007-07-19T15:50:00.000-05:00Bravo Sheldon! Well said. A Randian hyper-rational...Bravo Sheldon! Well said. A Randian hyper-rationalist trying to define libertarian foreign policy on the head of a pin. <BR/><BR/>One wonders where (or how) to begin a refutation: the war against Mexico, or Spain, or the countless occupations of Latin America before WW2; then the big two WWs which were the nail in the coffin of liberty; the defeats in Korea and Vietnam, not to mention the scores of other interventions, assassinations, inteference in electons in the Third World since 1945. <BR/><BR/>And then we come to Chalmers Johnson's idea of "blowback" where the American interventionist chickens suddenly come home to roost. Well the chickens are certainly flocking home to roost now, aren't they? What Randy seems to want is a battery chicken farm in the Middle East so that there will be blowback for generations to come.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20077444.post-37175989667505142312007-07-19T12:24:00.000-05:002007-07-19T12:24:00.000-05:00Seems Barnett is taking a Randian view point, like...Seems Barnett is taking a Randian view point, like Wally Conger pointed out yesterday, rather than strictly Libertarian.<BR/><BR/>He wouldn't be the first person, sadly, to confuse the tow philosophies.<BR/><BR/>Mike<BR/><BR/>theConverted.wordpress.comMikehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06941875334878452635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20077444.post-48334457547839552142007-07-19T10:48:00.000-05:002007-07-19T10:48:00.000-05:00Hi Sheldon,I think that's a nice insight about dia...Hi Sheldon,<BR/><BR/>I think that's a nice insight about dialectical vs. a priori views of libertarianism. In my own discipline, philosophy, libertarianism is almost universally identified with Robert Nozick, and hence with the set of propositions that can be deduced, a priori, from self-ownership. Of course, almost *nothing* of interest can be deduced a priori from self-ownership. (What, after all, does self-ownership tell us about riparian rights?) And so libertarianism as a philosophical doctrine is dismissed.<BR/><BR/>Like you, then I think it's much better to see libetarianism as a set of policy recommendations that are grounded in a whole host of consideratinos - some a priori commitments to the value of self-ownership, some empircally grounded economic considerations, some historical, etc. It's the diversity of reasons that can be brought to libertarianism's defense that makes the theory as rich as it is.Matt Zwolinskihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02809961003954980894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20077444.post-35168696774391654242007-07-19T08:03:00.000-05:002007-07-19T08:03:00.000-05:00I was waiting for you to comment when I saw the ar...I was waiting for you to comment when I saw the article. I am glad you did.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com